After a long wait, Brown chooses familiar face for state high court

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday nominated his legal affairs aide Joshua Groban to sit on the state Supreme Court.

Groban’s name had been at the top of the rumor mill for months. A top adviser to Brown since 2011, he helped the governor transform the state’s judiciary into one of the most diverse in the nation.

“Josh Groban has vast knowledge of the law and sound and practical judgment,” Brown said in a news release. “He’ll be a strong addition to California’s highest court.”

The long vacancy since Justice Kathryn M. Werdegar announced her retirement was widely criticized. The SCOCAblog, put out by UC Berkeley School of Law and UC Hastings College of the Law, put up a clock marking “Time since Justice Werdegar announced her retirement.” The count ended Wednesday at one year, eight months and six days.

The wait for a new justice sparked the rumor mill as speculation swirled that Brown would choose someone controversial, such as his wife, former Gap Inc. general counsel Anne Gust Brown, or even himself. In the end, Brown did pick someone he knew well.

The pick ensures Brown will leave his mark on the judiciary long past when he leaves office in January. Assuming Groban gets through the Commission on Judicial Appointments and other aspects of the confirmation process, he will be the fourth Brown justice on the seven-member court.

Among the justices he helped confirm are three future colleagues: Goodwin H. Liu, Mariano-Florentino Cuellar and Leondra R. Kruger. Like them — and like Brown’s 1977 pick, Rose Bird — he lacks previous experience on the bench.

Liu and Cuellar both had extensive experience as law professors, however. Kruger has argued multiple times in front of the U.S. Supreme Court while at the U.S. Solicitor General’s office.

Groban has already been through the confirmation process once. In August, Brown announced he had referred him to the State Bar’s Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation for a pick on the 2nd District Court of Appeal though he did not specifically nominate Groban for the job.

“Plenty of people thought that was just a set-up for a possible Supreme Court appointment, and that’s what happened,” said Benjamin G. Shatz, a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP in Los Angeles and author of the SoCal Appellate blog.

The pick also comes as Groban’s work choosing justices winds down. Just 37 superior court seats and three appellate slots remain, according to the most recent judicial vacancy report from the Judicial Council.

“He is a thoughtful and deliberative selection who will serve with distinction on our nation’s leading state supreme court,” state Supreme Court Justice Carlos R. Moreno said in a statement. “I’m also very pleased that the governor has nominated someone with roots in Southern California who will add to the geographical balance on the court.”

Prior to joining the Brown campaign, Groban was an attorney from 1999 to 2010, most recently at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP. He has been a lecturer in state appellate practice at UCLA School of Law since 2015.

“Serving the people of California over the past eight years has been the privilege of a lifetime,” Groban said in a statement. “I am truly humbled by this nomination and, if confirmed, I look forward to working alongside the highest court’s truly exemplary jurists.”

Several recent governors have named top legal advisers to appellate or superior courts, including Gray Davis, Pete Wilson and George Deukmejian.